Various TFT structures and various methods for fabricating them have been heretofore proposed. A fundamental TFT structure is shown in FIG. 1. This is called the coplanar type and comprises an insulating substrate 101 on which a semiconductor layer 102 is formed. Where the TFT is required to operate at a high speed, a single-crystal semiconductor or polycrystalline semiconductor is used. Similarly to ordinary insulated-gate semiconductor devices, a source region 103 and a drain region 104 which are doped with a dopant to enhance their conductivity are formed by self-alignment, using a gate electrode 106 as a mask. A channel formation region 105 is formed between the source and drain regions. The whole device is coated with an interlayer insulating film 107. The source and drain regions are provided with holes to permit formation of a source electrode 108 and a drain electrode 109. Generally, the depth of the source and drain regions is equal to or less than the thickness of the semiconductor layer 102. This device is not so designed that the crystallinity of those portions of the semiconductor layer which are close to the gate-insulating film is different from the crystallinity of those portions of the semiconductor layer which are close to the insulating substrate.
In the normal TFT structure shown in FIG. 1, the semiconductor layer consisting of a single crystal or polycrystals and showing poor crystallinity is used as the semiconductor layer containing the channel formation region. The semiconductor layer 102 has many defects and, therefore, malfunctions often occur. Slow leakage is a typical example of such malfunction.
That is, where the gate voltage is so low that no channel should be formed, i.e., the gate voltage is lower than the threshold voltage Vth as shown in FIG. 3(B), the relation of the drain current Id to the gate voltage Vg is given by smooth curve A in FIG. 3. Under this condition, i.e., the gate voltage is lower than the threshold voltage Vth, a current flows between the source and drain. It follows that it is substantially impossible to control the drain current by the gate voltage. The spontaneously flowing current at voltages lower than the threshold voltage Vth is known as punch-through current.
This punch-through current flows between the source and drain through a passage that is considerably deeper than the channel surface. Therefore, it is possible to control the punch-through current by increasing the resistance of this passage. However, any feasible TFT having this structure has not been proposed.